Free Earnest by Kristin von Kreisler

Their agenda was the future.
    â€œExhibit A for my fight against the ash avalanche.” Joy gave her broom’s dingy gray bristles a halfhearted kick. She’d walked in, leaning wearily on the handle. With a groan, she sank into a metal folding chair. Side-by-side, Anna and Lauren dangled their legs from a Chinese-red table.
    â€œI’m thinking the universe is telling me to forget my shop and find a regular job,” Joy said.
    â€œYou don’t want to do that. You wouldn’t have time to finish Wild Savage Love, ” Lauren said.
    â€œWe’ve stuck with you while John and Penelope fell in love in Cornwall. Now that Murdon’s captured them, you can’t leave us hanging. We have to know what happens,” Anna said.
    â€œIt’s all bad,” Joy said. “They’re chained up in the brig of the Evil Murdon’s slave ship. He’s got the hots for Penelope, so you know where that might lead. As he heads for the Barbary Coast, a storm blows in and everybody’s getting tossed around and sick, but John and Penelope can’t reach each other.”
    â€œYou can’t leave those poor people in misery like that forever. They have to escape. There has to be a happy ending. You can’t give up the story,” Lauren said.
    â€œI’m not sure.” Devoid of her usual spunk, Joy hung her head. Ashes sprinkled out of her hair and landed on her shoulders. “I’m discouraged.”
    â€œWe all are, but we can’t let a fire defeat us,” Lauren said.
    â€œI don’t see how I can reopen my shop. I don’t want to be the starving Queen of Smokeland.” Joy covered her face with her hands, perhaps the only place to hide from her bad luck. “Total bummer,” she mumbled against her palms.
    Lauren thumped her hiking boots’ heels together. For work clothes, she wore a camouflage jumpsuit with an emerald-green ascot. “We need to figure out what we’re going to do.”
    â€œWe can’t till we find out what Mrs. Scroogemore has in mind. If she won’t let us stay here for now, that changes everything,” Anna said.
    â€œI’ve called her twice,” Joy said. “The rancid scumbag. If she gave a flying flip about anybody but herself, she’d get back to us.”
    â€œI don’t understand why she’s avoiding us. Where do you think she is?” Lauren asked.
    â€œWho knows? Maybe robbing orphans’ piggy banks in Florida,” Anna said.
    â€œI wish an alligator would drag her into a swamp and do her in.” Joy brightened at the prospect.
    Anna flicked an ash off her blue chambray shirt. “I think we should forget about her for a minute and decide what we want.”
    â€œI want George Clooney to prostrate himself at my feet while Brad Pitt nibbles my earlobes.” Joy chortled.
    â€œI’m serious,” Anna said. “I’d like to stay here with both of you and keep going as long as we can. And I still want to buy this house.”
    â€œI’m in,” Lauren said.
    Two pensive lines appeared between Joy’s eyebrows. “I don’t know.”
    â€œYou can’t bail out on us. We’ll help with your shop,” Anna said.
    â€œMrs. Scroogemore could boot us out tomorrow,” Joy pointed out.
    â€œWhat if she boots us out in a few months, after she gets a permit? Would we fight?” Lauren asked.
    That paved the way for more what-ifs and more hard questions.
    What if Mrs. Blackmore did not get a permit? If Anna, Joy, and Lauren had spent their savings getting their shops up and running, how would they scrape together money for an offer on the house? How could they afford repairs?
    What if Mrs. Blackmore let them stay for now but did nothing for the house? How could they get electricity? How could they fix the burned wall of Joy’s shop? How could they clean all the walls so customers wouldn’t gag at the smoke?
    When Anna pondered